My P-town

I grew up in Pleasanton, CA which is up north, East Bay area. So for me, P-town always meant Pleasanton, not Provo. Craig Ferguson did a bit once on his late show about Pleasanton, you can check it our here. A couple weeks ago my sister & her 2 kids ditched her working husband & I ditched mine for the 5.5 hr drive to P-town. We made it there in just under 5 hrs. Not bad for a mini van w/3 kids and a pregnant lady! My sister Krista did the driving and I imagine she was pretty anxious to get out of the car of whiners.

Our older sister. Kim lives there still and her oldest was graduating high school and her other daughter was graduating 8th grade. My parents flew in & my other sis Gina & her family made the 14 hr drive from WA in around 12 hrs. I'm pretty sure the radar gun he picked up from Costco had something to do with that speed. The only family missing was my brother's from TX. For some reason the military doesn't just let their Dr's take a week off whenever they want- ridiculous!

For some reason Pleasanton always feels like home to me. We lived there until I was 16 when we moved to WA. I still tease my parents that I'm bitter about having to move & make new friends halfway through my Jr. year. Driving down streets that have changed, home developments that were not there 15 years ago was...different, but didn't make it feel less like "home". Attending a graduation at the high school 3 of the 5 Holmes kids graduated from & that all 5 attended just made my feel old. Imagine how my sister feels...she had a daughter graduate from the same high school she graduated from (sorry Kim, had to throw that in!). Some of the same teachers are even still there.

My patient father checking off each speech during the graduation. Cracked me up.

My dad & the little boys cleaning up the fruit platter after the grad party.

Ok, enough of my nostalgia. I blame the pregnancy like I do with everything else these days. After I have Boy #2 I'll blame it on baby blues for a while, then I'll blame it on fatigue from 2 kids, yada yada yada. You get the picture. So long as something is taking the blame right?

Anyway, even though the June gloom was in full force, we had a fabulous time. 3 days of catching up, watching the kids re-connect, eating, playing in the pool (no matter the weather), & watching Max discover trains and learn new words. Trains are his new obsession. I wish those stinkin Thomas the Train toys weren't so expensive. I'll have to hit ebay for them I guess cuz my selfish sister wasn't giving up the collection she amassed over the last 10 years. Oh, & while there Max started saying his cousin Carson's name (pronounced Carz-in). You can't say it around him now w/o him looking everywhere for his cousin. Vocab is growing every day.

Playing w/trains and cars in Marcus's room. I'm sure he'll eventually find everything his younger cousins got into and moved.

In the hot tub. A little too chilly for the pool this day.

Thanks Kim for hosting everyone and letting us tear your house apart for a few days!

The Cousins